Tidmarsh ousted as CDER head amid lawsuit alleging abuses

After a three-month tenure as director of FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, George Tidmarsh was placed on administrative leave Sunday evening.

In comments to The New York Times, Tidmarsh attributed the action to his questioning of the legality of the processes FDA Commissioner Marty Makary was using to approve drugs that had been awarded commissioner’s national priority vouchers. He also described a “toxic environment” at FDA, attributing it to the actions of Vinay Prasad. Prasad is director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research and FDA chief medical and scientific officer...